First, By words of mouth, finding birth in an honest heart.
Secondly, With our feelings, sorrow for sins committed.
Thirdly, By good deeds in the future.
Rabbi Saadiah declared that God commanded us to sound the cornet on New
Year's day for ten reasons.
First, because this day is the beginning of the creation, when God began
to reign over the world, and as it is customary to sound the trumpets at
the coronation of a king, we should in like manner proclaim by the sound
of the cornet that the Creator is our king,--as David said, "With
trumpets and the sound of the cornet, shout ye before the Lord."
Secondly, as the New Year day is the first of the ten penitential days,
we sound the cornet as a proclamation to admonish all to return to God
and repent. If they do not so, they at least have been informed, and
cannot plead ignorance. Thus we find that earthly kings publish their
decrees with such concomitant, that none may say, "We heard not this."
Thirdly, to remind us of the law given on Mount Sinai, where it is said,
"The voice of the cornet was exceeding loud." To remind us also that we
should bind ourselves anew to the performance of its precepts, as did
our ancestors, when they said, "All that the Lord hath said will we do
and obey."
Fourthly, to remind us of the prophets, who were compared to watchmen
blowing the trumpet of alarm, as we find in Ezekiel, "Whosoever heareth
the sound of the cornet and taketh not warning, and the sound cometh and
taketh him away, his blood shall be upon his own head; but he that
taketh warning shall save his life."
Fifthly, to remind us of the destruction of the Temple and the fearsome
sound of the battle-cry of our enemies. "Because thou hast heard, oh my
soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war." Therefore when we
hear the sound of the cornet we should implore God to rebuild the
Temple.
Sixthly, to remind us of the binding of Isaac, who willingly offered
himself for immolation, in order to sanctify the Holy Name.
Seventhly, that when we hear the terrifying sound, we may, through
dread, humble ourselves before the Supreme Being, for it is the nature
of these martial instruments to produce a sensation of terror, as the
prophet Amos observes, "Shall a trumpet be blown in a city, and the
people not to be terrified?"
Eighthly, to remind us of the great and terrible Day of Judgment, on
which the trumpet is to be sounded, as we find in Zeph., "The great day
of the Lord is near, and hasteneth much, a day of the trumpet and of
shouting."
Ninthly, to remind us to pray for the time when the outcasts of Israel
are to be gathered together, as promised in Isaiah, "And it shall come
to pass in that day, the great trumpet shall be sounded, and those shall
come who were perishing in the land of Assyria."
Tenthly, to remind us of the resurrection of the dead, and our firm
belief therein. "Yea, all ye that inhabit the world, and that dwell on
the earth, when the standard is lifted upon the mountain, behold, and
when the trumpet is sounded, hear!" says the prophet Isaiah.
Therefore should we set our hearts to these seasons, and fulfill the
precept that the Bible commands us, as it is written:--
"And the Lord commanded us to do all the statutes ... that it might be
well with us at all times."